Victims of 'death flights': Drugged, dumped by aircraft – but not forgotten

Victims of 'death flights': Drugged, dumped by aircraft – but not forgotten
Pilots on trial in Argentina for first time in biggest ever human rights prosecution
Ed Stocker
Buenos Aires
Tuesday 27 November 2012

Almost 30 years since Argentina's return to democracy, a Buenos Aires courthouse will today hear charges against 68 former officials accused of a multitude of crimes during the country's "Dirty War", in which tens of thousands of Argentinians died at the hands of the last military dictatorship.

In what has been called the largest human rights trial in Argentina's history, the defendants will stand trial for their roles in cases of kidnapping, torture and murder perpetrated between 1976 and 1983, as well as the regime's notorious "death flights" – the practice of drugging opponents and dropping them from aircraft over the Rio de la Plata and Atlantic Ocean.

The hearing, which is expected to last two years, will summon more than 800 witnesses, and will focus on a range of crimes associated with the Naval School of Mechanics (Esma), a training centre in the capital that became the deadliest of Argentina's clandestine detention camps during the junta.

The 68 defendants – all ex-armed forces and police except for two civilians – are implicated in crimes against 789 victims, a third of whom survived their ordeals. Most of the defendants have never been tried before.